Google Cloud Introduces AI Agent Space in Response to Increasing Competition

The battle for supremacy in the cloud computing arena has quickly evolved into a race for AI dominance. Leading contenders Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are all vying for the top spot, offering customers a plethora of tools to access, utilize, deploy, and build on a variety of AI models.

So, it was hardly a shock when Google Cloud announced its new AI agent ecosystem program, AI Agent Space, this week.

This groundbreaking initiative enables businesses to explore, deploy, and co-create AI agents that automate tasks, enhance customer experiences, and optimize operations.

With an increasing emphasis on enterprise, Google’s announcement firmly places it as a formidable contender alongside rivals like Microsoft, SAP, and Salesforce.

Google is set to aggressively promote any agents you build and make available on its AI Agent Space

Google’s ecosystem is designed to empower partners to develop highly customizable AI agents. It provides them with robust tools and resources, including early access to Google’s AI technologies, direct support from engineering teams, and best practices to streamline development.

Moreover, Google plans to showcase new agents through its Google Cloud Marketplace, enabling partners to scale the agents they create to reach new, interested audiences.

This strategy is a win-win for Google, demonstrating its extensive catalog of agents for companies to choose from and ideally, attracting more users to Google and Google Cloud.

Present agents built by enterprises using Google AI models and Google Cloud

Interestingly, Google used the announcement of AI Agent Space to spotlight other agents built internally by its Google Cloud customers and partners. However, most of these solutions are not yet available on the AI Agent Space.

Presumably, Google aimed to showcase the potential of its tools and how businesses could transfer their internal agents to the AI Agent Space and market them as SaaS solutions.

Among these are:

• “Accenture is revolutionizing customer support at a major retailer by offering convenient self-service options through virtual assistants, enhancing the overall customer experience.
• Bain supports SEB’s wealth management division with an AI agent that enhances end-customer conversations with suggested responses and generates call summaries that help increase efficiency by 15%.  
• BCG provides a sales optimization tool to improve the effectiveness and impact of insurance advisors. 
• Capgemini optimizes the ecommerce experience by helping retailers accept customer orders through new revenue channels and to accelerate the order-to-cash process for digital stores.
• Cognizant assists legal teams in drafting contracts, assigning risk scores and recommendations for how to optimize operational impact.  
• Deloitte offers a “Care Finder” agent as part of its Agent Fleet, helping care seekers find in-network providers often in less than a minute — significantly faster than the average call time of 5-8 minutes.
• HCLTech helps predict and eliminate different types of defects on manufacturing products with its manufacturing quality agent, Insight.
• Infosys optimizes digital marketplaces for a leading consumer brand manufacturer, providing actionable insights on inventory planning, promotions, and product descriptions. 
• PwC uses AI agent technology to help oncology clinics streamline administrative work so that doctors can optimize their time with patients.
• TCS helps build persona-based AI agents contextualized with enterprise knowledge to accelerate software development.
• Wipro supports a national healthcare provider in using agent technology to develop and adjust contracts, streamlining a complex and time-consuming task while improving accuracy.“

Rival Solutions from Microsoft, SAP, and Salesforce

Hot on the heels of Google’s announcement, rivals including Microsoft with its Copilot Studio, have also launched similar AI agent initiatives. Copilot Studio has emerged as a leader in the AI agent space, with over 100,000 organizations creating or editing AI agents since its launch. At its Ignite conference in November 2024, Microsoft announced major updates, including integration with 1,800 large language models (LLMs) in Azure, offering enterprises unparalleled flexibility, autonomous agents, and multi-agent collaboration through its “agent mesh” architecture.

This makes it a compelling option for large organizations with complex IT landscapes.

Meanwhile, SAP recently updated its Joule AI assistant to offer collaborative AI agents designed to break down silos and unify workflows across business functions. Joule’s agents work collectively to address challenges such as payment disputes or supply chain disruptions, leveraging SAP’s deep integration with ERP, CRM, and HR systems.

Furthermore, Salesforce’s Agentforce, launched in September 2024, integrates AI agents into its vast ecosystem, leveraging its Data Cloud to enhance service, sales, and marketing functions.

While Microsoft and SAP focus on enterprise integration and cross-functional workflows, and Salesforce leans on low-code accessibility, Google stands out for its partner-driven flexibility and open ecosystem. By empowering partners to co-develop agents tailored to specific industries, Google fosters innovation while offering customers a diverse range of solutions.

Google’s marketplace model ensures that businesses can choose from a variety of pre-built agents or work with partners to create custom solutions.

This contrasts with Microsoft’s large-scale, infrastructure-driven approach and SAP’s process-unifying agents, making Google’s ecosystem particularly appealing to organizations with diverse and evolving needs.

However, in terms of sheer numbers, Google’s AI Studio lags behind the competition. The Google blog post announcement noted that its AI Agent Space is already live with “solutions from select partners” and the company “plan[s] to add hundreds of additional AI agents over the coming months.”

But currently, VentureBeat’s viewing of the AI Agent Space revealed only 19 distinct agent models available for use, a far cry from the hundreds or thousands available on cloud rivals’ solutions.